


Not-So-Blind Date

by TeamHPForever



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Hand Jobs, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 07:19:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4657557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamHPForever/pseuds/TeamHPForever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky finds out that Natasha's been trying to set Steve up on a date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not-So-Blind Date

Even after Bucky agrees to move into Avengers Tower with the rest of them, it takes him a while to fall back into old rhythms with Steve. Deep down, they’re both still those two inseparable kids from Brooklyn. But on the outside, things are different.

Bucky doesn’t know what to do with this peace. Sometimes—between nightmares—he remembers moments from before the Army tore them both apart. The two of them crouched under forts built from blankets and couch cushions. Teaching Steve to dance in their tiny kitchen. Steve on the couch with his head thrown back and Bucky kneeling between his legs. Bucky knows that cocky boy on the cusp of entering the Army is him but the moments are like watching someone else.

Their relationship would be more acceptable in this century. He thinks about it sometimes, when he’s alone with his thoughts and avoiding the violent flashbacks. What he doesn’t know is if Steve is still interested. If Bucky doesn’t feel like himself anymore, he can’t imagine that Steve has escaped the changes of seventy years between them.

Bucky has only been in the Tower for a few weeks when he walks into the kitchen to find Natasha sitting on the table and Steve pushing eggs around a pan. Bucky’s footsteps are silent and Natasha keeps talking without looking back.

“—what about the girl who wrote the little heart on your Starbucks cup last week?”

Steve snorts, pulling the pan off the heat. “She’s a junior in college, hoping to go to grad school in England. She’s great but no.”

Bucky coughs, stepping into the room like he’s just come downstairs. Natasha whirls around, hand reaching for a knife that isn’t there. Tony banned her from carrying knives in the Tower since she’d nearly impaled Dum-E.

“Bucky.” Steve grins and his face looks like it might split in two with it. “I made eggs.”

“I can see that.” Bucky pulls out a chair and drops himself in it. Natasha hops off the table and disappears without a word. Steve dishes out the eggs in silence. “What was Natasha talking about before I came in here?”

Steve shrugs, his mouth a tight line. “Natasha’s been trying to set me up with someone ever since the Battle of New York.”

“Oh.” Bucky doesn’t say anything for a moment. “So now that we’re living with a Stark, do you think we’ll ever get a flying car?”

In the evening, Steve and Bucky gather close for their weekly “catch up on modern culture” movie night. Tonight’s offering is _The Two Towers._ The music is just starting when Bucky blurts out, “Have you ever said yes?”

“Said yes to what?” Steve asks, not turning away from the screen that’s now showing sweeping shots of the New Zealand countryside.

“You said earlier that Natasha has been trying to set you up on a date,” Bucky continues, the words slipping out easier now that he’s gotten started. He hopes that he sounds casual. “Did you ever say yes?”

“No. I haven’t.” Steve picks up the remote, hits pause. “What’s this about?”

Bucky shrugs, moving his eyes to the TV screen so he doesn’t have to look at Steve’s face, all open and wide with concern. “I was just curious.”

Steve stares at him for a few seconds longer and then hits play. “Okay, Buck.”

Bucky doesn’t bring it up again, even as thoughts of Steve saying yes to one of Natasha’s set-ups eat him alive. He knows that he should just _talk_ to Steve but somehow that idea is even more terrifying. He just got Steve back and the idea of losing him again is impossible to contemplate.

Three weeks of ignoring his feelings later and Bucky cracks. He finds Natasha standing on the roof, looking out over the city in the dark. The wind blows her hair around her face, giving the appearance that she’s wreathed in flames. A distant memory stirs in Bucky’s mind—a mark, a gun, a single shot, blood—but he pushes it away.

“Barnes,” she says in way of greeting. She doesn’t look at all surprised to see him. “Come out for some fresh air?”

“Actually.” Bucky wraps his hand around the cold metal of his upper arm. “I wanted to ask you a favor.”

Natasha raises an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

“I want you to suggest me to Steve.”

Natasha smiles but she says, “Suggest you for what?”

Bucky slides a hand through his hair, squirming inside. He’s been tortured by scientists, plummeted to his death from a train, walked through fire, shot countless people in the name of Hydra, and yet nothing has made him feel like this. “A date. I want you to set me up with Steve.”

Natasha’s face softens to something resembling sympathy. Bucky doesn’t want that; he just wants her help. “I’m sure if you asked him he’d say yes.”

Bucky shakes his head. He doesn’t know why he thinks this is the best idea he has; he just knows that he can’t take this uncertainty anymore. All the bravado, all the confidence that led him to see what he wanted and go for it back in the 20s is gone now.

“Okay,” Natasha says and Bucky dares to allow hope to bloom in his chest. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Everything’s put on hold for a few days of official world-saving business. Some mad scientist with plans to subjugate the human race with a mind-control device that doesn’t actually seem to work. The situation is over quickly but hunting down the actual inventor of the device in a remote Bolivian jungle takes some time. Bucky starts to wonder if maybe Natasha’s forgotten about her promise.

Except Natasha doesn’t forget about anything.

Bucky’s coming up the elevator, more than ready to take a shower and then climb underneath his own sheets, when he hears Natasha’s voice. “There’s this guy. Tall. Handsome. Great in bed.”

Bucky freezes, holding the button to keep the elevator doors closed and pressing his ear against them. “Nat, we’ve talked about this.”

“He’s even a veteran. He’s going the whole _shared_ _life experience_ requirement filled, I promise. I think you’re really going to want to meet this one.” Natasha’s voice is charming and teasing at the same time. “Just one date and then I’ll never try to set you up again.”

There’s a long silence. “Okay.”

Bucky rushes to press the button back to his own floor. Natasha finds him later, digging through his admittedly limited closet. “Tonight. Seven sharp. Dinner at that Japanese place with all the knives.”

Bucky nods. “What should I wear?”

“You’re on your own with this one, soldier.” Natasha grins and disappears back out the door. Bucky sighs and turns back to his closet.

Steve has seen him at his best and his worst and (almost) everything in between. Bucky knows in his heart that Steve doesn’t give a damn what he’s wearing but he still wants to make this count. If this is the last date they’re ever going to have, then he’s going to do it right.

Bucky sneaks out of the Tower when six-thirty rolls around, careful not to run into anyone, especially Steve. The restaurant is only about a five-minute walk. He tries to take his time, stopping at a couple magazine stands to stare blankly at headlines composed mostly of names he doesn’t recognize. Somehow he still ends up being twenty minutes early.

Bucky paces around the front of the restaurant, trying not to look too suspicious in his black coat with the hood pulled up. Luckily it’s a cold night and he’s good at not being noticed. With ten minutes until seven, Steve appears out of the crowd.

Bucky waits, hoping that Steve realizes what this means, that he’s here to meet _him._ Hoping that he won’t see a look of confusion, of disappointment, a quick glance around for his _real_ date.

Steve catches his eye through the crowd and smiles. He walks right up to Bucky and slides their fingers together. “I knew it was you,” he says. “That’s why I said yes.”

“You’re a punk.” Bucky stares at him for a moment, just as amazed with Steve as he was when he was just a scrawny kid picking fights in back alleys. “Why didn’t you just _tell_ me?”

“I could ask the same question.” Steve laughs and glances inside the restaurant. “You know this sounds fun but what do you say about just going back home?”

“Eating in?”

Steve’s eyes take on a new edge of darkness, one that Bucky hasn’t seen in a _very_ long time but doubts he will ever forget. “Something like that.”

Bucky gets a glance at the kitchen in and asks, “Is there anything in the fridge?” before Steve is tugging him toward the back elevator. They fall onto Steve’s bed together, legs tangled and hands grabbing at shirts.

“We could have been doing this for weeks,” Steve mumbles, biting kisses onto Bucky’s neck as he shoves his shirt back off his shoulders.

Bucky growls and grabs a handful of hair, guiding Steve up into a kiss. No matter what else has changed about them, Steve’s lips still feel the same. The kiss is gentle and rough in turns, making up for lost time. If Steve notices the cold of his metal hand as Bucky shoves both hands underneath his shirt, memorizing the wide expanses of skin once more, he doesn’t let on.

Bucky bites down on Steve’s bottom lip and gets a groan in response. Steve tosses him onto his back and Bucky marvels once more at his serum-enhanced strength and size. He can still remember when Steve was small enough that Bucky was afraid that he might break—even though he’d always known that Steve was stronger than he was.

“All right?” Steve asks, straddling his waist and pressing their bare chests together.

It takes Bucky a moment to even figure out why he wouldn’t be. “More than all right.”

He wraps a hand around the back of Steve’s neck, pulling him firmly down into a kiss. Steve opens his mouth eagerly and Bucky accepts the invitation, sliding his tongue inside. The sweetness of the moment is gone, replaced with desperation that it might be ripped away.

Steve slides his knees forward and reaches between them for Bucky’s jeans. It isn’t long before he is shoving his hand inside. Bucky hisses as a hand wraps around his cock. It’s been so long, too long, but Steve seems to remember just what to do.

“Oh God,” Bucky groans, his hips bucking off the bed. Steve surrounds him, his hand stroking his cock, his teeth nipping at his throat. Too much. It’s all too much.

Bucky pushes at Steve’s chest until he backs off a bit. The extra space is enough for him to get his hands between them and push down Steve’s pants. Bucky lifts himself off the bed, freeing his own cock, and then reaches for Steve’s hips as he lines them up.

Steve reaches between them, wrapping his large hand around both of them. Bucky lets out a whine at the feeling of their cocks pushing together. He’s not going to last long like this. Not with Steve panting in his ear. Especially not with Steve fastening his teeth onto his neck and thrusting hard against him.

_“Steve_ ,” Bucky sighs as he comes. Steve leans back, thrusting in his own hand twice before letting go. Bucky reaches up, cupping Steve’s cheek with his hand, ignoring the sticky mess between them.

Steve rolls off him and onto his side, leaving enough space that Bucky doesn’t feel enclosed as they both come down from their high. “I think it’s funny,” Bucky says. “Natasha always trying to set you up. What was that thing about shared life experience?”

Steve wrinkles his nose and groans. “I wanted someone who could understand. Sue me.”

“What, no dating sites for people turned into super soldiers by German scientists?” Bucky rests his hand on Steve’s bare chest, right over his heart. He remembers lying like this before, his fingertips primed for the slightest variation in rhythm. “Did you try that one for older folks…what’s it called, Our Time?”

“Shut up.” Steve buries his face into Bucky’s shoulder. “You and Natasha could start a club. I seem to recall you always trying to set me up on dates.”

Bucky goes quiet, the smile slipping from his face. “I just wanted you to be happy. Because I was joining the Army and you…we…”

Steve pulls back far enough to look at him. “We couldn’t be together. Not like that.”

“Yeah.”

“I was happy, Buck. I am. I would have taken anything you offered me, you know.” Steve’s hand reaches across, slides up the surface of his metal arm. “I still would.”

“I love you,” Bucky says, the words slipping out before he has any time to think about them.

Steve rolls off onto his side and his entire face breaks into a grin. “You don’t think the first date is a little soon to express your love, Ted Moseby?”

“I’m not sure this really counts as a date. I mean, I didn’t even get dinner.” Bucky rolls his eyes. “Curse Barton for getting you caught up on modern television.”

“I couldn’t resist.” Steve leans over him and presses a light kiss against Bucky’s forehead. “I love you too, Buck. Always have. Always will.”


End file.
